Election 2016

Wake up, fellow Pennsylvanians, you are not dreaming. No, for some strange reason your vote in the presidential primary this year will actually (gasp) matter! I know, who would have ever thunk it.

Since today was crazy busy and I ran out of time to post anything before the start of the weekend, I thought I would throw a quick voting guide together for my friends on both sides of the aisle.

GOP Presidential Primary

If you(r)…..

hold political views that were considered “far right” during Reagan’s time in office.

think the hatred and bigotry tainting the primary is unseemly, unless its directed towards women.

secretly want to gobble the cocks of every member of Meet the Press.

really want to listen to movement conservatives talk about how they would have won if you would have nominated a “true” conservative.

honestly want to choose the most electable candidate.

version of Christianity demands you provide medical care to the no good poors.

You want to waste your vote.

then you should vote for Ohio Governor John Kasich. He may be a misogynist, but don’t worry, the mainstream media, you know, that you keep calling liberal?, they will make him out to be a sane, moderate choice that everyone can get behind. Nominate Kasich and after the mainstream media turns him into a uniting force for America, you have the presidency. Of course, he’s only won the state he is governor of, and if they give him the nomination at the convention over two candidates with far more popular support Cleveland is going to burn. And a bunch of Trump and Cruz supporters will probably stay home. Wow, maybe Kasich as the nominee would grab moderates after the media lies to them that Kasich is a moderate, yet still lose the election because of a conservative revolt? Shit, you guys are fucked. Sorry.

If you(r)…..

hold political views that would have gotten you laughed out of any GOP meeting during the Reagan era.

want to cut the federal government down to the armed forces, the FBI, and the FBVI*.

love a candidate who will lie constantly, even when he doesn’t have to.

want a candidate who’s tax plan will only work if 90% of the government is cut.

think we never came close enough to nuclear war during the Cold War and want to try again.

think a religious war sounds like a great way to bring the 2010’s to a close.

thoughts on the “100 cans of soup” incident were “she should have kept her mouth shut.”

want to scare Canada and most of Europe half to death.

want to shove your religion so far down everyone’s throats that they think they are shooting for Throated.com.

are white and proud to say you hate n-words, k-words, s-words, and any other racial slur you can think up.

then you should vote for short fingered vulgarian Donald Trump.

The Democratic Presidential Primary:

If you(r)…….

believe in fairies, unicorns, and that a socialist President could actually get anything passed through a Congress that blocked ideas that originated within their own party because they were suggested by Obama.

are a misogynistic Democrat.

believe that left wing versions of the House Freedom Caucus and the Tea Party are what the Democrats really need right now.

you believe Hillary has it in the bag but you want to vote a message to the Democratic party that we will be dragging the party back to the left.

have bought into the media (and GOP) narrative that HRC is the slimy survivor of a thousand scandals. (How dare she not just be a housewife when Bill was President!!!! And they’ve thrown mud ever since.)

are feeling the Bern, even though you will gladly vote for HRC in the general if she is the candidate.

honestly think the FBI is going to indict her. (Personally I think if there was actual evidence of wrong doing they wouldn’t have let her get this far in the primary.)

believe income inequality is the number one problem we are facing.

then you should vote for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

If you(r)….

do not feel we have the votes currently for a complete political revolution.

want to maintain the gains we have made while slowly fighting for more while we change the party from the ground up.

believe the neo-confederacy is the major problem at this moment, stretching from the bigotry shown to blacks by the police, to loud and proud bigotry directed towards Muslims and Hispanics, to the legalization of discrimination of members of the GLBT community, to the war on a woman’s right to control her own body and her reproductive freedom.

think we should stay the course fiscally for a few more years and see if the economy keeps improving.

are incredibly curious as to what they will call Bill if HRC becomes President. First Man? First Husband? When they say “President Clinton!” will they both go “What?” Come on, tell me you are not dying to know how that is going to work.

Then you should vote for former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Clinton.

A few things quick. There are a few points in the Sanders column that are negatives. Needless to say, I do not believe every Bernie voter is a misogynistic Democrat or ideological purists who refuse to compromise. Unfortunately, some times you need to call a spade a spade, and this election is definitely one of those times with so much outright bigotry on the GOP side. There are some Democrats who are voting for Sanders because HRC has a vagina. Hopefully it is a very small amount, but their are some out there. It also seems that some Sanders supporters think the extreme ideological purity and refusal to compromise shown by the House Freedom Caucus and other Tea Party members is something to envy and foster on the left. This is straight up painful to me. There are things about the Tea Party that we should emulate. They showed that it is possible to move the positions of your party, and that the threat of a primary opponent is incredible leverage once they realize the threat is not hollow. They also were quickly astroturfed over and guided by the nose by some *cough*Koch*cough* mysterious force, and the uncompromising nature of the House Freedom Caucus provides a great example of how to know when you are doing it wrong. Like it or not, our system of government demands compromise.

Anyway, just because I wrote a bad reason under Sanders, don’t think I believe all his voters have the same reasons. Hell, I still may be voting for Sanders in the primary. I’m leaning HRC, and I honestly believe she is the most qualified, but voting a message to the party is mighty tempting to push her as far to the left as I can. And no matter what, either of them get my vote immediately in the general.

The race for the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination is in full swing now, over a year away from the actual election, and this cycles crop of candidates presents a classic good news/bad news situation. First the good news: It is Christmas in August for political satirists and late night talk show hosts. It may be cliched, but it is comedy gold. The bad news is far more serious and depressing. Next November, when it is time for the American electorate to head to the polls and choose their President for the next four years, the choice they will be presented with will include one of these candidates.

Once the party of Lincoln, the Grand Old Party has become the victim of a force they themselves created through liberal usage of the “Southern Strategy” along side other effective, yet risky, strategies. Decades of basing their electoral hopes upon the votes of angry white men has backed the party into the proverbial corner now that American demographics have swung enough to make that strategy nonviable. The American electorate continues to become less white, less religious, less sexist, and less homophobic. Meanwhile, the GOP “base,” the extreme fringe that consistently exercises power far out of proportion to their actual number because they actually bother to vote in primary elections, has, if anything, gotten more conservative and less willing to accept any form of compromise. Because of this phenomenon, moderate members of the Republican party holding elected office have been slowly marching towards extinction.

Americans currently reside in a country where the political middle is actually quite a bit to the right of center, especially when compared to Europe. While the GOP’s conservative “base” may be killing the party from the inside, this is one victory they’ll be able to point to for years to come. As the GOP veered ever farther rightwards, it pulled the Democratic party towards the center in hopes of picking up the moderates the new extreme GOP was leaving behind, resulting in a dream scenario for conservatives where policy positions that began as Republican creations are now seen as “liberal” or “socialist.” (See Romneycare….I mean, Obamacare as an example.) True moderate Republicans have their hands tied; do they attempt to actually govern and reach compromises with Congressional Democrats, or do they want to be re-elected? No matter how popular positions such as an increase to the minimum wage, background checks for firearm purchases, or a path to citizenship may be, they are toxic positions for Republicans who know that groups such as the NRA and media such as Fox News will use the extremist “base” to punish these politicians come primary season. The ability to get things done and get elected has become an afterthought to ideological purity.

I would love to be able to look at this slate of candidates and just laugh. I mean, I do laugh, and thankfully there are great comedians (such as Noah, Heath, and Eli at The Skepticrat) out there who can make me snort coffee out my nose instead of cry over the first primary debate. But I have to admit that I am terrified of this election cycle. The demographics have yet to change enough that low turn out plus a scandal couldn’t result in a GOP Presidential win, and that President would have both houses of Congress, allowing him to pretty much have free reign for two years.

And if that doesn’t scare you, you haven’t been paying attention.

Friday will see the first GOP candidate get the Foster Disbelief treatment. Who will be first? Here’s a hint: You should never see him if you are properly preparing for anal sex.

About the Author

Described as "intelligent but self-destructive," Foster Disbelief spent his twenties furiously attempting to waste his potential in a haze of religion and heroin. Science and atheism allowed him to escape his twin addictions and he now spends his days attempting to make the most of his three remaining brain cells.